Political science students compete at Model Arab League

Monday, Apr 27, 2009

Ten Oklahoma Christian University Political Science students attended the Model Arab League Intercollegiate competition held at the University of North Texas on April 16-18. There were schools from 4 different states in attendance, and many brought more than one group to participate. The Universities in attendance were: University of North Texas (2 delegations), Midwestern State University, Texas Wesleyan University (2 delegations), Baylor University (2 delegations), Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma Baptist University, University of Arkansas Little Rock (2 delegations), and Missouri State University.

The students competed in one of five committees (Political Affairs, Joint Defense, Palestinian Affairs, Environmental Affairs, and Social Affairs) representing the country of Syria. The students must research completely the position of their country and the position of all other countries that are members of the Arab League. They then must argue and debate their stance on several topics in each committee by introducing resolutions and voting on other countries’ proposed actions.

Our students won first place in one of the committees (political) and second place in two other committees (social and environmental), and the delegation won third out of 12 delegations in the overall competition. This is only the third year that Oklahoma has attended this conference, and in such a short time, they have received the respect and admiration of faculty at other universities. I am very proud of their hard work. Most of the other schools had courses to help them prepare for this event. Our students prepared on their own time, and it just shows the level of intelligence and commitment our students have towards educational opportunities.